Why media agencies suck at Facebook advertising

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Mike, you are wrong.

Most good media agencies are constantly optimizing their clients digital campaigns. As for the assertion they should be changing creative every 2-3 hours… Hhhmm, I hardly think you can assess an ad units performance in that sort of time window.

Oh, and very few media agencies still work on commissions – most now work on a fixed fee basis so it doesn’t matter if cost per click campaigns are booked. Lots of media agencies use CPC deals as a matter of course.

It doesn’t appear that you know what you are talking about. Perhaps next time you should check the facts before writing such drivel.

These op-ed headlines are terrible. Why things ‘suck’, thanks for ‘fucking up’ email … is the only way to get a reaction is by being sensationalist?

On a side note … I highly doubt this guy knows how it worked in the ‘old-world (how delightfully passive aggressive)

@ Don, the post is written to reflect my own exchanges over the past 24 months with media buying agencies. In my experience and in the experiences of a lot of other strategists in the space the sentiments above ring true. Sorry you see it as drivel. M

Many of your generalizations about how media agencies operate look like its you who’s stuck in an old school mindset…

If I had $1 for every creative who claimed media agency decisions were all about revenue and control…well I wouldn’t need to be working anymore! Its a very one dimensional perspective on what modern media agencies do. Clearly there is more room for collaboration between media and digital creative agencies on this and many issues. Telling one side their work and point of view ‘sucks’ is rarely a good way to get collaboration on track.

Great article Mike, Media agencies can’t operate the way they’re used to in the digital world, especially in the fast-moving social media space.

@ Don, if you don’t think you need to manage facebook CPC ads every 2-3 hours then you don’t know how to manage facebook advertising.

Mike, incendiary language aside and maybe the commission bit, you are right.

Based on my experience working with several big media agencies, anyway. Its never any different. One I know talks about ‘optimising’ every two weeks!!

They are likely to always ‘suck’ at it. Messaging just ain’t their thing.

They seem to need many times the budget (why is that?) that a good social strategist who’s connected to the creative/messaging seems to need, in terms of generating likes and engagement.

But you’re wasting your time arguing with them. Most of the poor buggers just don’t have time to do things properly, and don’t really get what you mean.

mike you are also assuming that it was the creative agency planners were the ones who came up with the idea to use facebook for that particular campaign.

Don Draper absolutely nails it…changing creative every 2-3 hours is totally ridiculous unless under extra-ordinary circumstances.

Mike this sounds like your agency is trying to justify it’s fees by changing creative continuously

Having recently moved as a strategy-type from media to creative (and between hemispheres) I find this article very interesting.

In the ‘old world’ that I remember well, our entire creative focus was on developing a brilliant insight that held the product proof above the competition, resonated with the target audience and we were pretty sure (though often just hopeful) would fly within social media.

Of course, checking out click performance was useful to see if anyone was biting, but I can’t recall ever having sold into a client a solid idea that was, well, kind-of-solid as we might need to change it every 2 or 3 hours…?

Totally agree that media agencies need to work closer with creative agencies, but both need to have courage of conviction behind their work – lead by meaningful insights and driven by proper KPIs. Do we really think Facebook clicks alone are key performance metrics to constantly change creative assets around, rather than concentrating on the ‘old world’ measures of brand, sales or operational efficiency (those ‘big 3’ of course borrowed from the old world master analyst himself Mr Jim Sterne)?

Ouch! The gloves are off, but the verdict is still out as far as I’m concerned.

I have worked with a number of integrated agencies who do both creative and media buying and are doing it very well.

Maybe it’s not a matter of anyone ‘sucking’ just a lack of understanding of the balance required in order to achieve success.

Couldn’t agree more – I’ve found myself in a similar position with media agencies many times and it’s extremely frustrating.

changing creative every 2-3 hours is OLD WORLD

we change ours every 2-3 seconds. And even then it’s hard for us to sleep at night as we want to be even faster.

That’s the NEW WORLD we live in.

The only people who want to see advertising on websites are stupid advertising agencies, there even stupider clients, and sleazy web masters who only want to make a quick dollar.

No visitors to websites want to be bombarded with all the crap that advertisers want to display.

Plus, there is nothing that is more likely to make website visitors leave a website quickly, swearing never to return to the site again, than dumb, irrelevant and intrusive popup ads and animated ads.

A great wake up call. Thx for the heads-up.

This is absolute ballacks. Firstly, the fundamental flaw with creative agencies is that they focus on coming up with ideas that resonate with consumers not developing strategies and tactics on how to deliver business results.

The other day I witnessed a reputable and global creative agency proposing not one but two Facebook applications…why? God knows?. When asking them about why they were doing it, why people would take part in such an app and how it links back to actually achieving the business objective, they said they would need the media agencies help with this!

Right there is why an agency focused on delivering actual business results rather than an agency coming up with some clever way of resonating with a consumer through messaging and branding should be owning social media.

Also, you call yourself a social media strategist…what does that actually entail? Please elaborate

Just go to a totally integrated agency that does it all.

Problem solved!

There are now automated optimisation programs for Facebook that can dynamically change the creative based on landing page content as well as the targeting employed. Not fantastic for creativity – but drive clicks far cheaper (and better quality) through marketplace.

Also – most of my FB budget goes into sponsored stories – which are usually based on page posts. So no creative agency required 😉

@Logic 2.58pm

Your comment made my afternoon.

“web masters” hehe

Couldn’t agree more that agencies need to work more collaboratively for the greater good. Conversations around who “owns” social media are void – ownership sits with the client.

Thankfully I work for a media agency that welcomes collaboration – a good idea can come from anywhere, the true sign of a great agency is that they can pick up any idea and execute it brilliantly.

Optimising facebook creative regularly is a must. As for ‘great creative strategies’ for facebook – still waiting to see one of those….

Extraordinary that an article like this provokes so many responses. FB advertising, great, but where are our great creative minds who, behind closed doors, keep telling clients that o/l messages just aren’t that intrusive? Change the fuckers every nano second, it’s not the point.
Yu reckon I’m a TV sales person? Wrong. Just someone who uses FB, not to mention other social sites; damn, they dont even have to be social, the fact is the intrinsic value of what great creative can achieve, is enhanced by mediums that are intrusive, not off to the side.

@ Liam you’d be stupid to completely trust those automated programs, they too need a level of manual care and attention. If most of your FB budget goes into sponsored stories then you will find that either your audience will leave due to being spammed about your new promo or your ads won’t have the best copy for capturing new user’s attention. Anyone who thinks facebook advertising is piss easy isn’t doing it right, and if you’re not using real copywriters and designers for your ads then you’ve turned advertising into drivel.

I know what generates results online because I have researched it in significant depth over the past ten years or more. Plus, I have applied the techniques I learned about on websites with measurable and undeniable success, and what works is most certainly not banner advertising.

The techniques are simple, obvious, and easy to prove and apply once they are fully understood. Once a marketer understands how website visitors think, and understands what they do while online, then the marketer can go beyond the usual marketing hype that is promoted online.

Google understands what web surfers do, because each and every day Google tracks millions of web users and records where they go and what they do online as they visit different websites.

They for example, track how long or how short a period of time each visitor remains at each website, and record if visitors access more than one page at each site they visit, plus track if and how often a visitor returns to a previously visited website.

Google then analyze that information and use the results of that analysis to rank and promote the most popular websites. They then send more visitors to the most popular websites and send fewer visitors to the least popular sites. Simple!

Most traditional advertisers will initially reject what works online because it does not neatly fit their preconceived ideas, or their past experiences of what traditionally worked in print or television.

However, the Internet is not print or television, and website visitors have millions of other websites they can easily visit if they do not like the content of the website they are currently visiting.

Understanding how marketing works online requires a total paradigm shift, and that is challenging for anyone who has been dealing only with print and/or television advertising for the past twenty years.

In the traditional mediums, the advertiser has a captive audience who cannot easily or immediately switch to any one of millions of other channels or print publications.

On the Internet however, the browser back button to the search engine results page is only a single click away, and it is the most used button on the web.

You’re more likely to die in a aeroplane accident than click a banner on the web. Says it all really….

@Mick Did I saw it was easy? As with any sort of trading desk you need to have highly trained/skilled staff running the show. But you’d be kidding yourself if an ad copywriter can produce the hundreds of variations of copy required to run a large scale marketplace buy without charging a mint for it (and do it on the fly).

Sponsored stories can be frequency capped by the way and rotated (and should be).

In short – we need to collaborate but changes in tech have changed the scene. This article doesn’t apply to today’s world of dynamic ads and DSPs

If you make a narrower current window on the computer screen, the facebookers like me, doesn’t have to look at anyone’s adverts. I can pretty much guess whats going to be there anyhow. Perhaps a randomised perpetually popping sector is the best option.

@Mick Your comment “Anyone who thinks facebook advertising is piss easy isn’t doing it right!” is gold and I may just put it on my won site.

As a Facebook Ads Specialist, I know that Facebook Ads are not for set and forget placement as I see some big agencies doing.

You need laser targeting, multiple testing and refreshing as part of your campaign management strategy, otherwise you are paying too much and getting sub-optimal results.

In my experience it’s the creative agencies that have no idea what actually works within the social space, particularly when it comes to effectives messaging. You’ve got copywriters and designers crying out for a large canvas to work on, unfortunately 99 x 72 and a limit of 90 characters doesn’t really fit in with that! Hasn’t stopped previous creatives I’ve worked with from trying to cram as much into that tiny little space as possible.

I have to say that it sounds like everyone on this thread, including the original post author has a different POV on this topic and no-one is willing to play in the sandpit nicely with each other. I think David Lockett (and Jean Cave) said it all with highlighting the fact that NO CONSUMER CARES ABOUT ONLINE ADVERTISING. The only ones that seem to are media players and, to a lesser extent, creatives working in advertising. Sad really.

are there really any true specialists in facebook advertising or social media generally? i’m not being a smart arse, just curious. the industry feels too much in its infancy for anyone to claim any kind of mastery/specialisation.

@AHS, can you elaborate on how this article represents an old school mindset?
@Paul, if you feel that optimising facebook ads every 2-3 hours is ‘totally ridiculous’ – you’re gonna have a bad time.
@Logic, that is impressive.
@Kanye, you’re right. Two facebook applications is a dumb idea, I would suggest getting a new creative agency. Can you also, in the sake of fair argument provide an example of an agency that is doing it right by providing ‘actual business results’. This would allow us all to gain a clearer picture of who, in your mind, should be ‘owning social media’.
@AlisonF, you nailed the reason why I wanted to write this article. To your point about no consumer caring, they may not care, but they do click. Facebooks US$1.06B in revenue for Q1 2012 clearly illustrates this.

It is possible to advertise successfully on Facebook.

I once ran a successful Facebook promotion for a local community event. It is a annual local agricultural show that 20,000 visitors attend over a two day period.

The Facebook ads were targeted only at people who live within the relevant area. The ad graphic was simple although bold and very direct, displaying only the name of the show and the relevant date.

The ad was displayed on more than 1 million pages, and several hundred local Facebook users clicked on it and visited the event website. If I remember right, each visitor from Facebook cost the organisation about 30 cents

It was however a social event and so it was relevant to promote it through Facebook, which is a social environment.

By comparison, the event organisers spend up to $20,000 each year on traditional newspaper advertising, or about $1 for each visitor who attends the event.

@Kanye – What is a Social Media Strategist? Probably some Gen Y kid who sits on facebook all day – that has built over 50+ brands marketing strategies on facebook over the last 4 years, actively developed strategy to manage over 5M consumers through facebook, laid out the media strategy for over $6M in media buys through facebook advertising, consults to executives on facebook marketing strategy and teaches the only government accredited social media course in Australia. Can you please elaborate further on what you do, Mr West?

Just a quick one…I wonder what the percentage of users of facebook who access the site from their mobiles. I haven’t noticed any ads on it

Optimize every 2-3 hours? Mike, I strongly suggest you schedule a meeting with your local facebook rep. I have signed up for your fortnightly facebook strategy pack and I wait in anticipation.

@mike watkins…you’ve basically said a whole heap of words that amount to nothing…you write social strategies and buy media… Sounds a lot like a media planner to me mate. As for your course, calling yourself an expert actually makes you sound way more amateurish. Nobody is an expert. So you’ve laid out media strategies…doesn’t this completely make your argument a babbling hypocrisy. Why would a creative agency buy media???

why do social media people call themselves strategists rather than just planners?

Mike has an awesome beard.

The real bottom line of this argument is “how many sales can be credited to any online advertising?” Do you have proof that your creative changes (how ever often) increased the sales of the advertised goods over what was already appearing? If you’re changing messages every 2-3 hours unless the goods are online how can you tell which one is effective? Don’t really think “like” is a paid sale in most instances. With David Lockett’s agshow visitors — what was the actual visitor number increase from your FB campaign, clicking on a webpage isn’t necessarily getting people through the door?
Everyone seems to forget that the basic premise of advertising is getting those cash registers to ring!
Show Me the Money

Google are presently introducing systems in the US, which track actions when a visitor is sent to an advertisers website from an affiliated website, or through an affiliate link on a page, possibly even from a link which is displayed on a Facebook page. The introducing affiliate is then paid a sales commission on each sale generated.

Such systems however appear to be as far as I am aware, almost unknown in Australia, although they are rapidly growing in popularity among US based advertisers.

I believe these systems will have a significant impact on the traditional advertising industry. Because as advertisers become increasingly aware of them (and in the US Google is actively promoting them to advertisers), the advertisers will want to use them.

Then, those affiliated organisations (or even capable individuals) who can generate significant measurable outcomes by sending ready-to-buy visitors to an advertisers website and who make actual purchases at the site, will be paid commissions.

While those individuals or organisations who are unable to generate measurable results from the visitors that they send to the advertisers website, will not get paid because no actual sales were generated by those visitors.

Marketing online involves a total paradigm shift, and there is still more to come.

@beezlebub, I would love a clear cut definition of what a planners job description is and what a strategists job description is. To me they are one of the same, strategist just sounds cooler.
@Graham I put a lot of time and effort into that beard, thanks for noticing.

@Kanye 2.0 – I’ll repeat my previous question for you, mate. Can you please elaborate further on what you have done and what you do, Mr West? If you can’t, your various arguments hold very little weight and make you look small.

@David Lockett – are you trying to say Australia doesn’t have affiliate programs? It certainly does – check any travel website… or amazon. Pretty standard?

I saw the same issues while working at organisations who appointed advertising agencies to manage our online advertising – mainly for search advertising however.

The ad agencies resisted allowing us access to the search accounts, did not aggregate them for the efficiencies and market intelligence and did not provide us access to reports, merely providing brief ‘these messages did well’ summary report each month.

As a result I wil never again trust advertising or media buying agencies to stand between me and my client. They can assist by providing ideas and executions, but not control the reporting or assessment of their own performance.

Graham.

Travel website affiliate programs were only the beginning of what is set to become a huge snowball, that grows ever bigger as it rolls down the mountain side.

What I am saying is that Google appear to be taking the affiliate model to new levels that no one else has taken it to previously. I have discussed these developments with local Advertsing Agency execs here in Perth, who appear to know nothing about them.

But then that is Perth. Possibly agencies in Sydney and Melbourne are more aware of what is developing.

You can check out the information that is available about Google’s affiliate program through their search engine.

Some major overseas organisations are now signing up to the program, along with hundreds of smaller businesses. Most are based in the USA although not all.

Plus, infrastructure is developing that enables US based companies to very effectively, efficiently and economically deliver commodities, including womens clothing and shoes etc to countries around the world, including to Australia.

Young women here in Australia are now flocking to those overseas websites in their thousands to buy high quality items, often for far less than they can buy similar items for at their local shopping centre.

Even after paying for the items to be shipped around the world, and even if they have to pay GST on the imports the items still cost less. These young women are then telling their friends to also shop at those websites.

How do I know they are doing this? I have overheard them talking about it and have asked them what they are doing. It is know as doing market research.

Hi Mike,

Big question for you – what creative agency manages client’s budgets and optimisations well when it comes to buying any ads – facebook or otherwise? I’ve never met one – and I’ve met many who have tried and failed disastorously. There is a good reason – creative agencies are focussed on being creative as they should be, media agencies on numbers and results. The real reason media agencies won’t give you control is they want to ensure good numbers and maths on the back end – a strength not aligned to many if any creative agencies.

Good luck with the argument. But until creative agencies can manage a campaign budget and results well (and not give the client ten reasons to never trust them again with their hard earned marketing budget) – you’re fighting a dying cause.

Good luck with the beard! And thanks for starting the conversation

This Mike character has a major attitude problem

Can someone please advise me how to stop receiving comments made on this article?

Many comments are proving to be a load of dribble, personal atttacks on the author and uneducated responses from people with nothing constructive to say or better to do.

I have work to do and this is clogging up my inbox.

Janelle,
You can stop comments by going to the page, scrolling down to the bottom, and clicking on the Manage your subscriptions link located below the SUBMIT COMMENT button.

Thanks David.

Aussie Facebook reps *no comment*

@Janelle said the most constructive thing so far. Pity she won’t see this comment.

Why do we keep devolving into personal attacks? Keep it on topic and above the belt people, else we risk further tarnishing the reputation of our industry.

Here at Web 5D.0 we’re so far ahead of the curve that we optimise and change our content 2-3 hours before we even post it to the web. Nah-nah-he-nah-nah.

My faith in creative agencies managing a social campaign died once the agency I deal with suggested a ‘competition’ for the social strategy… for the 4th campaign in a row.

While I’m sure there are some creative agencies out there who have other ideas, and could pull off a successful campaign, I sure as hell wouldn’t trust my social campaign with the inept agency I have to deal with.

Media agencies buy, track, optimize, report, analyze, and report again to the client. If creatives think they could handle that much data, and fit it in, by all means have a go.

All I’m saying is we get paid to do it, and we do it well. Why try and fix something if it isn’t broken?

Today I set up my own myspace page.